Coit Tower Murals - Woodbridge Township School … PWAP appointed Victor Arnautoff technical...

Photographs by L. Swanson & K. Malkson November 24, 2009

Coit Tower

Murals A social narrative depicting

“Aspects of California life” in 1934

In 1933 Coit Tower was constructed atop Telegraph Hill as a city beautification project, immediately becoming a landmark attracting tourists. The Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), the first government program to employ artists as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), set out to create a series of monumental fresco paintings on the tower’s interior walls in 1934.

The PWAP appointed Victor Arnautoff technical director for the mural project, and twenty-six artists were selected to design various artworks on the theme of “Aspects of California Life.” Ten assistants also facilitated the work, doing everything from mixing pigments to grouting fresh plaster.

The production of the Coit Tower murals converged with two dramatic events that turned the project into a lightning rod for controversy. Diego Rivera’s mural at New York City’s Rockefeller Center, Man at the Crossroads, was destroyed by order of John D. Rockefeller on February 10, 1934, because one small part of the mural included a portrait of communist leader Vladimir Lenin. Many of the artists working on the Coit Tower murals had met Rivera, and were naturally against the destruction of his mural. (source - “Art for a Change” http://art-for-a-change.com/blog/2009/02)


Victor Arnautoff and his fellow muralists also supported San Francisco’s longshoremen, seaman, waterfront workers, teamsters, and municipal workers - who went on strike against low wages, long hours and terrible working conditions on May 9, 1934. On July 5, 1934, in an effort to defeat the strike, employers used strike breakers with police escorts to move goods from piers to warehouses - riots ensued, with the police shooting dead two strikers on what came to be called Bloody Thursday. Up to 40,000 people held a funeral march for the slain workers, an event Arnautoff memorialized in a drawing unrelated to the Coit murals. In the aftermath of the lethal police repression, the entire city of San Francisco was shut down in a great General Strike which lasted three days - it was the biggest labor action in U.S. history.

Arnautoff and a number of the other artists working on the Coit Tower murals felt it necessary to comment on these events - and so included certain images in their murals. For instance, in his mural titled Library, artist Bernard Zakheim depicted a group of men gathered in the periodicals room of a library, reading newspapers whose headlines referred to the destruction of Rivera’s mural as well as to the San Francisco maritime strike. Zakheim included a portrait of fellow Coit Tower muralist, John Langley Howard, reaching for a shelved copy of Karl Marx’s Das Kapital. Zakheim also included a self-portrait in his mural, showing himself reading a copy of the Torah in Hebrew, with other sacred books in Hebrew close at hand. No doubt the rampant anti-Semitism of the period contributed as much to attacks on the mural project as did anti-communism.

The press became indignant over the small amount of left-wing imagery found in the murals, the San Francisco Chronicle branding them “red propaganda”. As right-wing outrage over the murals intensified, the PWAP almost give in to conservative pressure, slating Zakheim’s mural, and a number of others, for whitewashing. The opening of Coit Tower for public viewing of the murals was delayed for months, and fortunately the controversy subsided. When the Tower was finally opened to the public only one mural had actually been censored, Steelworker, a portrait of a tough looking laborer by Clifford Wight. The artist had incorporated the slogan “Workers of the World Unite” into the portrait’s background - PWAP had the slogan obliterated. (source - “Art for a Change” http://art-for-a-change.com/blog/2009/02)


Fresco crediting Public Works of Art Project (1934) murals in the lobby of Coit Tower


“Animal Force & Machine Force” by Ray Boynton (1)



In the center over the doorway a circle containing the mystic forces of nature, sun, moon, rain, lightning and a pair of all-seeing eyes.

Image on the left is the electricity & motor machine force mural by Ray Boynton


“California Inudstrial scenes” by John Langley Howard (1)


" The mural includes a scene with depression era tent dwellers washing their clothes and panning for gold in the river below a new hydroelectric plant as chauffeur-driven rich people watch. Differences in attire, vehicles and even the dogs owned by the two groups are used to illustrate the contrast in their respective economic situations.” (from “Coit Tower & PWAP Murals on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco” http://www.inetours.com/Pages/SFNbrhds/Coit_Tower.html)


“California Inudstrial scenes” (2)

by John Langley Howard

The mual also depicts striking miners marching together in worker solidarity with one carrying a leftist paper.


“railroad and shipping” by William Hesthal


Leaders of California Life” (1) “Surveyor” and “Steelworker” by Clifford Wright


“Leaders of California Life” (2) “farmer” and “cowboy” by Clifford Wright


“Industries of California” by Ralph Stackpole (1)

Steel plant workers



Laboratory workers



Packaging and Canning factory workers


“Newsgathering” by Suzanne Scheuer (1)


“Newsgathering” mural details by Suzanne Scheuer (2)


“library” by Bernard Zakheim (1)

Joining the artist in the library are family and friends. The artist is reading a Hebrew book. Fellow artist John Langley howard reaches for a Marx book,

Ralph Stackpole learns about the destruction of the Rivera mural at Rockefeller Center in New York, and Beniamino Bufano reads about his proposed St. Francis statue.


“library” by Bernard Zakheim (2)


Detail from “library” by Bernard Zakheim (3)


“city life” by Victor Arnautoff (Right Mural) Victor Arnautoff’s contribution to the Coit Tower mural series is titled, City Life , a vibrant depiction of street life in San Francisco during the 1930s.


“city life” by Victor Arnautoff (Right Mural) In a newspaper stand, a vendor is hawking leftist newspapers like the Masses and the Daily Worker. Pedestrians are rushing about, a mixture of rich society people, sailors, longshoremen, and blue collar workers.


“Carting produce” by Victor Arnautoff (Right Mural)


“city life” by Victor Arnautoff (Left mural) Such familiar San Francisco buildings as City Hall, the Main Library, the Legion of Honor, and the Stock Exchange watch over the hectic urban scene, which includes an accident and a robbery.


“men at work” and “NewsStand” by Victor Arnautoff (Left mural)


“Armed robbery” by Victor Arnautoff (Left mural)


“Auto Accident” by Victor Arnautoff (Left mural)


“San Francisco Landmarks” by Victor Arnautoff (Left mural)


“Banking and

Law” by George Harris

While the stocks continue to plunge and bags of money are guarded, lawyers pour over books in a law library. The artist’s sense of humor is evident in the titles of books and authors to whom he attributes the titles.


“Lawyers doing research” and “Handling and Guarding money” by George Harris


“Department Store” by Frede

ViDAr Available for purchase are fabrics, toys, wines and music. Shoppers rest at the lunch counter where the special is advertised at 25 cents.


“Lunch counter” by Frede ViDAr


“California” by Maxine Albro An expansive view of California agriculture including: the production of cut flowers, hay harvest, vegetable farming, orchard scenes (oranges for packing, apricots for drying) and winemaking.


“production of cut Flowers” by Maxine Albro


“Picking oranges” by Maxine Albro


“California orchards” by Maxine Albro


“drying apricots” by Maxine Albro


“harvesting grapes” by Maxine Albro


“Meat Industry” by roy Bertrand


“butchering pig” and “Weighing hams” by roy Bertrand


“California Industrial scenes” by Gordon Langdon


“dairy farming” by Gordon Langdon


“inspecting beef” by Gordon Langdon

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